May 13, 2011

Simply Creative with Emily

Hello! I'm Emily Pitts, and I so happy to be a part of Simple Stories. I also met Amber at this past CHA and was drawn to the rich bold colors she used in the lines, as well as the great basic designs on many of the papers. The multiple alphabets on one sheet also caught my attention, I love a good alphabet any day, so give me four and I'm a happy typophile (yes, I made that word up, I think)!

Today I bring you Simply Creative, or how to use the Simple Stories products as stand-alone elements. I was looking through the different lines and had the following brainstorm: It's the end of the school year here in Colorado. My son Ethan has his beloved orchestra and show choir teacher retiring, so we bought her some flowers. I thought it would be fun to use the Elementary line for an end of the year card, instead of the typical documenting-the-year ways we would normally use a school line. Then I thought a pick in the flowers would be a delightful accompaniment to the bouquet. It was so easy to put together, I hope it will inspire you to do the same.

For the pick, I used one of the flashcards from the Elementary Flash Cards paper and covered the tree with the circle of dates from the Report Card paper. There's already an apple on that circle of dates, but I cut out another bigger one from the Elementary Flash Cards and popped it up to make it a stronger element. Tie it with a bit of bakers' twine, add some stars and a ruler from the Report Card paper, and you've got a cute pick. Imagine this same pick as the front of a card, it would easily transform if you wanted to use it that way instead.

For the card, I used one of the 4x6 Vertical Journaling Card Elements as the base of my card, then added some stickers and a strip from the Report Card paper, cut so each day was its own bit. I like to break things up like this, you don't have to use a strip if it doesn't fit, you can cut it up like this. Add some stars and another apple from one of the flashcards and you have a cute card. I felt like the A+ got lost on the yellow graph paper, so I simply traced around the letter with a black pen to help it stand out.

I love how this teacher appreciation gift uses the Elementary line in a slightly different way, but still holds true to the school purpose. I hope you'll be able to find new uses for your other Simple Stories products as well! Please leave a comment sharing any fun teacher appreciation ideas you've had in the past.

Until next time,

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